Biomimicry and flight go way back. Leonardo da Vinci, and others who came after him, studied avian flight to learn how to get humans off the ground and into the air. Unfortunately for Leo, his machines didn’t fly. But eventually the Wright brothers got the proper principles down, and now we have cargo planes that can transport everything from every-day commuters to endangered rhinoceroses. But there is always room for improvement, and now biomimics are looking to an unlikely candidate to study flight—snakes!

Now, of course, snakes don’t really fly per se; they actually glide. But they still utilize the same principles of lift and drag that govern bird flight. “Flying” snakes are unique among the gliding creatures such as flying squirrels and flying fish because they lack the extra membranes that these other organisms use for gliding. Instead, these animals flatten their bodies while in the air and slither as a snake would if on the ground. In effect, their whole body becomes one big wing.

Scientists have been awarded funding to better understand how paradise tree snakes in southeast Asia are able to glide long distances from tree to tree. Where did this funding come from? The U.S. Department of Defense. How exactly the United States is going to use this knowledge is yet unclear; it is purely an informational study at this point.

On that note I ask, What would you make that’s inspired by a “flying” snake?

RELATED POSTS

3 Reader Comments

Dianna from Ohio

Posted January 2, 2011 at 7:49 AM

hhhmm… my first thought would be a different type of stealth airplane or some type of parachuting. The plane would be further away from the destination but the paratroopers would be able to glide into where ever they want to go… vs just jumping out of a plane and going straight down.. I’ll be curious to see what other bloggers think? Good post…

David

Posted January 25, 2011 at 8:46 PM

Flying snakes! Now they don’t even need planes.

JoGGer

Posted February 18, 2011 at 3:20 PM

Are ‘flying’ snakes venomous ?

Moderator’s note: Yes, but they are not fatal to humans.

Comments Closed

Comments are closed. You will not be able to post a comment in this post.